SAMOAN ISLANDS, a group in the South Pacific Ocean, formerly known as the NAVIGATOR'S ISLANDS.
Location. — They are located about 2,000 miles S. and 300 miles W. of the Hawaiian Islands and 14° S. of the equa tor.
The group consists of 12 inhabited and 2 uninhabited islands, with an area of 1,700 square miles; aggregate population, (1917) 41,128. The islands are of vol canic origin, but fertile, producing cocoa nuts, cotton, sugar, and coffee, the most important, however, being cocoanuts, from which the copra of commerce is obtained by drying the kernel of the cocoanut, the copra, which is exported to Europe and the United States, being used in the manu facture of cocoanut oil.
Government.—The government of the Samoan Islands had been from time im memorial under the two royal houses of Malietoa and Tupea, except on the island of Tutuila, which was governed by native chiefs. In 1873, at the suggestion of foreign residents, a house of nobles and a house of representatives were estab lished, with Malietoa Laupepa, and the chief of the royal house of Tupea as joint kings. Subsequently Malietoa be came sole king. In 1887 he was deposed by the German Government on the claim of unjust treatment of German subjects, who formed the bulk of the foreign popu lation on the island, and was deported first to German New Guinea and then to the Cameruns, in Africa, and finally in 1888 to Hamburg, Tamasese, a native chief. beine. meantime proclaimed by the Germans as king, though against the pro test of the British and American consuls at Samoa. Mataafa, a near relative of Malietoa, made war upon Tamasese and succeeded to the kingship.
In 1889 a conference between the repre sentatives of the American, British, and German governments was held at Berlin, at which a treaty was signed by the three powers guaranteeing the neutrality of the islands, in which the citizens of the three signatory powers would have equal rights of residence, trade, and per sonal protection. They agreed to recog
nize the independence of the Samoan Gov ernment and the free rights of the natives to elect their chief or king and choose a form of government according to their own laws and customs. A supreme court was established, consisting of one judge, styled the chief justice of Samoa.
Malietoa, who had been deported, was restored as king in November, 1889, and continued as such till his death, which occurred Aug. 22, 1898, when the consuls of the three powers, with the chief jus tice as president, took charge of the ad ministration pending the election of a successor. Out of the election and recog nition of this successor to King Malietoa, deceased, serious disagreements between the local representatives of the three gov ernments maintaining the joint protec torate over the islands occurred. These were followed in 1899 by a new agree ment between the three nations: the United States, Germany and Great Bri tain, whereby each nation assumed con trol over certain islands. Great Britain afterward ceded her share to Germany for concessions in Africa and elsewhere. In the first year of the World War (1914), German Samoa was captured by New Zea land troops and by the terms of the Peace Treaty of 1919 New Zealand was awarded control of this territory. A volcanic erup tion, begun in 1905, in the interior of Savaii, continued until 1909, the greatest volcanic disturbance in the history of the world.